Disney Officials

Although attendance numbers didn't bump up until weekend match- es, Disney officials seemed pleased with their second effort at staging the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships.Sunday's crowd, estimated at 2,300 in a stadium seating 3,200, certainly seemed enthused with the entertainment value of a final match that lasted 2 hours, 44 minutes.``This validates why we built this place,'' said Reggie Williams, vice president of Walt Disney World Sports. ``We are pleased with the improvement of the turnout.

For 19 years, PUSH, the talking trash can from Tomorrowland inside Magic Kingdom park has been entertaining guests, along with providing them a place to throw away trash. Now, rumors are circulating that Disney might be canning the iconic character. A Disney spokesperson said Friday that there was "nothing to" the rumors and that PUSH "isn't going anywhere. " In response to rumors that PUSH might be on the Disney chopping block, fans have united on social media to make their pleas for Disney to keep the interactive waste receptacle . A Facebook page named " Save PUSH the talking Trash Can " was created Feb. 5. As of Friday morning, the page already has more than 5,300 "likes," as fans continue to post their pictures and memories of PUSH.

By Charean Williams, Tim Turner and Scott Kauffman of The Sentinel Staff, August 23, 1997

If Tampa Bay is to train at Disney's Wide World of Sports next year, company officials aren't yet saying. Walt Disney Sports Vice President Reggie Williams attended Friday night's as did other Disney officials. ''We are here to just reacquaint ourselves with a number of individuals with Tampa Bay,'' Williams said. ''And to make sure they are cognizant of all of what the Central Florida community has to give.''Rich McKay was in Orlando on Thursday, but Williams said they did not meet. As far as the Bucs using the Disney complex for their 1998 training camp, Williams said, ''We think the NFL would be great for Central Florida, and we have controlled what we can control by bringing the NFL experience here.

The discovery of a gun aboard a ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom has raised questions about what park security does to keep firearms from slipping inside and whether its no-weapons policy for visitors is clear. A grandmother handed a Cobra .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol to a park attendant Sunday after getting off the Dinosaur ride. "My grandma found it in her seat," her young grandson told park security. Minutes later, an apologetic Angelo Lista returned to claim the firearm, which was loaded with five hollow-point bullets - but none was in the chamber.

Disney World officials told county officials Friday the theme park would supply 250 buses to bring 5,000 journalists to Osceola's segment of the Magic Kingdom's 15th anniversary party Oct. 4.County Administrator Eleanor Anderson said Disney officials promised complete cooperation with the event, a $300,000 party aimed at touting the county's unique tourist offerings.Earlier this month, Disney said it might not be able to supply enough buses to bring the journalists and their guests -- an estimated 10,000 people -- to the party's Osceola County Stadium site.

What do you get when you cross invention with innovation?A new Disney exhibit, of course.''Innoventions,'' a showcase for products of the future, is scheduled to open in June at Epcot Center. The 100,000-square-foot center will have products for the home and office, as well as electronic games and toys, said Judson Green, president of Walt Disney Attractions.''It will be the first public showing for many of the products,'' Green said.Disney had previously announced it would transform CommuniCore, a mishmash of outdated interactive computer programs, into a futuristic showcase.

It's hard to attract attention in New York, but the sight of Goofy and some toy soldiers in bawdy Times Square just might do it.Walt Disney World is set to launch its 25th anniversary marketing campaign in the Big Apple today, marking the first leg of what company officials describe as the most ambitious publicity effort in the Orlando resort's history.Beginning with a day in New York - the nation's media capital and one of Disney World's top tourist markets - Goofy and the green army men of Toy Story fame are about to start spreading the word on the upcoming event.

Wayne Merrill and his wife drove 260 miles from Sallisaw, Okla., to sleep in their car in the parking lot of the Skaggs Community Hospital.All 14,000 motel rooms in Branson, the country music boom town in the Ozarks, were filled. Like neon echoes, red ''No Vacancy'' signs line the town's traffic-choked corridor of motels, restaurants and celebrity theaters.''We've been coming here for 20 years, but what's going to keep us from coming back is we couldn't find a place to sleep,'' Merrill said.

In the land of Mickey Mouse, Bambi and Donald Duck, workers routinely fired a rifle at hawks, beat vultures to death with a stick and destroyed the nests and eggs of ibises and egrets, according to state and federal investigators.That's what they found behind the scenes at Walt Disney World's Discovery Island, an 11-acre zoological park. They say the park's supervisor sanctioned the abuses.A two-month investigation resulted in 16 state and federal charges filed against Disney and five of its employees last week - most dealing with the death of vultures which were crammed into a tiny, overheated shed for days with limited food and water.

The discovery of a gun aboard a ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom has raised questions about what park security does to keep firearms from slipping inside and whether its no-weapons policy for visitors is clear. A grandmother handed a Cobra .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol to a park attendant Sunday after getting off the Dinosaur ride. "My grandma found it in her seat," her young grandson told park security. Minutes later, an apologetic Angelo Lista returned to claim the firearm, which was loaded with five hollow-point bullets - but none was in the chamber.

Downtown Disney is turning into Disney Springs. The transformation starts next month when construction begins on the renamed, re-themed Walt Disney World complex. The end result will be twice as many shopping, dining and entertainment options, Disney officials said Thursday. The multimillion-dollar project includes about 150 venues that will open in phases, with completion in 2016, said Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. He would not identify specific tenants but said to expect "world-class" stores and restaurants.

The opening of a 12-acre Cars Land expansion at Disney California Adventure Park fueled big crowds and long lines at the Anaheim park this weekend. Disney officials declined to disclose attendance numbers for the park, but Al Lutz, founder of the online Disney blog Miceage.com, reported Monday that California Adventure drew a record 43,000 visitors Friday, opening day for Cars Land. Lutz, who has a long history of disclosing behind-the-scenes information on Disney's two parks in Anaheim, said attendance hit 45,000 on Sunday.

Friday, May 18, was the final day to participate in the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure at Walt Disney World. The interactive scavenger hunt, which sent guests on missions throughout the national pavilions of Epcot, is being replaced with the Agent P World Showcase Adventure, featuring the platypus character seen in the Disney Channel animated series "Phineas & Ferb. " The Kim Possible game opened at Epcot in early 2009. The Agent P attraction will open sometime in "late June," Disney officials say. According to a posting on the Disney Parks Blog, "guests will transform into secret agents to help Agent P thwart some of Dr. Doofenshmirtz's most daring plots.

It was the summer of 2010 and profit margins were down at Walt Disney World . The giant resort had been forced to reduce prices amid a weak economy. Managers were searching for ways to trim costs. One place they found? Their property-tax bill. That summer, according to emails reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel, Disney officials made a concerted effort to get the land value of their theme parks reduced by the office of Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donegan.

Today, the Walt Disney Co. finally announced the debut date for its new 24-hour basic cable and satellite channel aimed at kids ages 2 to 7. Disney said that its Disney Junior channel will launch March 23 in the United States. The new channel will highlight such current kid-friendly shows as “Jake and the Never Land Pirates” and “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.” It also will feature new programs for youngsters, too. The announcement, made during winter TV critics tour in California, said that the new channel will be carried by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Bright House Networks, Verizon and others.

-- WHAT'S IN A NAME? There's a new street called Touchstone Drive in southwest Orlando, not far from the Universal Studios complex. The name piqued the curiousity of some in the area, since Touchstone is the trademark of one of Walt Disney Co.'s motion-picture companies. Disney officials in Orlando said they have no property in the neighborhood or role in naming the street. Disney officials in Burbank, Calif., said the street name didn't touch a nerve with them, adding that they are only concerned with Touchstone when it refers to motion pictures, not Florida subdivisions.

ABC-TV's ''Good Morning America'' will telecast Walt Disney World's ''Very Merry Christmas Parade'' for the third year in a row at 10 a.m. on Dec. 25. Disney officials say they are optimistic that the show will do as well this year as it did in 1984, when it ranked as the No. 1 show during its time period.By Dec. 25, Disney employees will have spent 15,000 hours preparing for the parade, a spokesman said.

LARRY NELSON (1987): Six shots back to start the day, the genial Georgian thought he was doing his family a favor by telling them to get a head start for home. They wound up missing a closing 63, capped by Nelson's birdie/birdie finish that produced a one-shot victory. JEFF MAGGERT (1993): As daylight ran out on a 36-hole Sunday, Disney officials moved floodlights that had been on the practice range over to the 18th green. It provided a surreal finish for Maggert's first PGA Tour win - a three-shot romp ending a half-hour after sunset.

It often seems as though Disney releases a new Web-based or mobile-app game every week or more. After all, every time a new Disney movie hits the big screen, the movie's official website usually has a promotional tie-in game of some kind, even if it is just a simplified mouse and target game on a website or puzzle games for the younger Disney fans. Then there are mobile game apps that play off film titles, too, such as the recent summer releases of games associated with “Thor” and “Captain America.” And even Disney's smaller-screen productions usually tout a game, as well, such as Disney Channel shows “A.N.T.